针叶树基因组特征及其序列资源挖掘进展

针叶树是裸子植物中最大也是分布最广的一支。作为多年生木本植物,针叶树不仅为工业提供建筑、造纸等重要原料和其它可再生能源,而且在北半球的生态平衡中也起着重要作用。因其独特的分类地位、重要的经济价值和生态价值,针叶树序列资源挖掘备受重视。然而其庞大且复杂的基因组阻碍了这一进程,截至2013年4月,尚无获得全基因组序列的针叶树种。随着第2代测序技术的出现及生物信息学的快速发展,针叶树序列资源挖掘也从转录组过渡到全基因组测序,后者己在松属（Pinus）、云杉属（Picea）和黄杉属（Pseudotsuga）部分树种中开展。该文首次归纳了针叶树基因组特征．回顾了针叶树序列资源挖掘进程,并重点介绍了火炬松（Pinustaeda）、欧洲云杉（Piceaabies）和白云杉（Piceaglauca）的全基因组测序项目。     

特有植物多样性分布格局测度方法的新进展

特有植物是生物多样性保护的重要对象,对其分布格局的研究可以为生物多样性优先保护区的确定提供重要参考.研究人员利用多种测度和分析方法,在不同地理区域对特有现象的分布格局开展了大量研究.随着分子系统学方法的不断完善及一些空间统计分析方法的引入,新的生物多样性测度方法应运而生.本文介绍了生物多样性测度方法的类型及其特点、应用现状与前景.这些测度方法的发展经历了从单一的时间或空间格局到时空格局统一的过程,具体涉及物种丰富度、谱系多样性、进化特异性以及这3种测度方法整合空间分布加权的算法.其中,谱系多样性指数(phylogenetic diversity)、谱系特有性指数(phylogenetic endemism)以及空间加权的进化特异性指数(biogeographically weighted evolutionary distinctiveness)尤其值得关注.中国特有植物分布格局的研究需要在以下4个方面进一步开展工作:(1)完善特有物种的分布格局研究;(2)加强物种的测序工作,完善谱系多样性格局的分析;(3)结合系统发育信息,揭示谱系多样性及进化历史的分布格局,进而深入开展物种p多样性和谱系p多样性的研究;(4)加强物种分布区变化的模拟,在时间维度上探讨特有现象的变化格局,为生物多样性保护提供更完善的理论支持.     

A Method for the Enhancement of Environmental Stress Resistance of Endoparasitic Fungus Esteya vermicola

Esteya vermicola is the first recorded endoparasitic fungus of the pinewood nematode, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, which is the causal agent for the pine wilt disease. Culture on modified agar media with herbal extraction (0.5%) was found to be able to induce resistance to UV radiation, heat and drought conditions in Esteya vermicola. Herba Houttuyniae, Tatraxacum officinale and Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi exhibited the highest improvement on environmental competence of Esteya vermicola at all the tested time points under the stress conditions. In addition, improved quality and effective viability of Esteya vermicola were observed amended with the three herbal extractions in culture media. Enhanced stress resistance was associated with herbal metabolites. These findings provided a green, feasible, economical method for developing an open‐field spay application of fungal biocontrol agents against pine wilt disease.     

无柄灵芝遗传多样性的SRAP、ITS、TEF1-α和LSU分析

【目的】研究来自我国不同地区的45株无柄灵芝菌株的遗传多样性。【方法】利用ITS、TEF1-α和LSU多基因分析及SRAP分子标记两种方法,对供试无柄灵芝菌株进行聚类分析和遗传多样性研究。【结果】筛选出8对SRAP引物共扩增出95条条带,其中具有多态性条带79条,平均多态性比例为82.4%,多态性信息含量(PIC)变幅在0.28-0.43,平均为0.38。ITS、TEF1-α和LSU多基因序列分析结果显示,同一地域的部分菌株聚在一起,亲缘关系较近,而地域相隔较远的部分菌株也聚在同一个进化支上,其亲缘关系也很近,这与SRAP聚类分析结果相吻合。【结论】无柄灵芝菌株遗传多样性较为丰富,其遗传相似性与地理分布存在一定的相关性,ITS、TEF1-α、LSU基因及多基因分析更适合无柄灵芝分类鉴定,而SRAP分子标记更适合于无柄灵芝遗传多样性分析。     

Synthesis and biological evaluation of 3-substituted 5-benzylidene-1-methyl-2-thiohydantoins as potent NADPH oxidase (NOX) inhibitors

We report the synthesis of novel 3-substituted 5-benzylidene-1-methyl-2-thiohydantoins 3, and their biological evaluation using NADPH oxidase (NOX) 1 and 4. Based on structural and pharmacophore analyses of known inhibitors such as hydroxypyrazole 2, we envisioned interesting 2-thiohydantoin compounds, 3-substituted 5-benzylidene-1-methyl-2-thiohydantoins 3 that would be expected to well match the structural features in 2. Efficient synthesis of eighteen target compounds 3 were achieved through the synthetic pathway of 4 → 11 → 3, established after consideration of several plausible synthetic pathways. The inhibitory activities of compounds 3 against NOX 1 and 4 were measured, with some of the target compounds showing similar or higher activities compared with reference 2; in particular, compounds 3bz, 3cz, and 3ez were found to be promising inhibitors of both NOX 1 and 4 with modest isozyme selectivities, which highlights the significance of the 2-thiohydantoin substructure for inhibition of NOX 1 and 4. This marks the first time these compounds have been applied to the inhibition of NOX enzymes.     

A graph theoretic approach for modelling tiger corridor network in Central India-Eastern Ghats landscape complex,India

Wildlife habitat corridors are components of landscapes, which facilitate the movement of organisms and processes between areas of intact habitat, and thus provide landscape corridor as well as serve as an ideal component to study and understand physiological ecology. Corridors are thus regions within a given landscape that generally comprise native vegetation, and connect otherwise fragmented, disconnected, non-contiguous wildlife habitat patches in the landscape. The purpose of designing corridors as a conservation strategy is primarily to counter, and to the extent possible, mitigate the impacts of habitat fragmentation and loss on the biodiversity of the landscape, as well as support continuance of land use for essential local and global economic activities in the region of reference.In this paper, we use game theory and graph theory to model and design a wildlife corridor in the Central India – Eastern Ghats landscape complex, with tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) as the focal species. We construct a graph using the habitat patches supporting wild tiger populations in the landscape complex as vertices and the possible paths between these vertices as edges. A cost matrix is constructed to indicate the cost incurred by the tiger for passage between the habitat patches in the landscape (based on Shelford's Law of Tolerance), by modelling a two-person Prisoner's Dilemma game. A minimum spanning tree is then obtained by employing Kruskal's algorithm, which would suggest a feasible tiger corridor network for the tiger population within the landscape complex. Additionally, analysis of the graph is done using various centrality measures, in order to identify and focus on potentially important habitat patches, and their potential community structure. Correlation analysis is performed on the centrality indices to draw out interesting trends in the network.     

Different climate response of three tree ring proxies of Pinus sylvestris from the Eastern Carpathians,Romania

The aim of this study was to compare the climatic responses of three tree rings proxies: tree ring width (TRW), maximum latewood density (MXD), and blue intensity (BI). For this study, 20 cores of Pinus sylvestris covering the period 1886–2015 were extracted from living non-damaged trees from the Eastern Carpathian Mountains (Romania). Each chronology was compared to monthly and daily climate data. All tree ring proxies had a stronger correlation with the daily climate data compared to monthly data. The highest correlation coefficient was obtained between the MXD chronology and daily maximum temperature over the period beginning with the end of July and ending in the middle of September (r = 0.64). The optimal intervals for the temperature signature were 01 Aug – 24 Sept for the MXD chronology, 05 Aug – 25 Aug for the BI chronology, and both 16 Nov of the previous year – 16 March of the current year and 15 Apr – 05 May for the TRW chronology. The results from our study indicate that MXD can be used as a proxy indicator for summer maximum temperature, while TRW can be used as a proxy indicator for just March maximum temperature. The weak and unstable relationship between BI and maximum temperature indicates that BI is not a good proxy indicator for climate reconstructions over the analysed region.     

Relative roles of niche and neutral processes on turnover of plant,fungal and bacterial communities in arid and semi-arid areas at the regional scale

The mechanisms that determine the spatial structure of macroscopic and microbial communities and how they respond to environmental changes are central themes that have been explored in ecological research. However, little is known about the relative roles and importance of neutral and niche-related factors in the assemblage of bacterial, fungal, and plant communities. Here partial Mantel, null model, and variation partitioning analysis were used to compare mechanisms driving the beta diversity of bacteria, fungi and plant communities at the regional scale in arid and semi-arid areas. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) was used to evaluate the distribution pattern of microbial communities, and vegetation survey were conducted to evaluate the characteristics of plant communities. We found that bacterial, fungal, and plant communities were strongly influenced by niche processes at the regional scale in arid and semi-arid areas. Bacteria had a stronger habitat association, indicating community assembly is strongly affected by niche processes. Fungi, with their body size between plants and bacteria, had moderate environment correlation, and plants had less environment association than fungi or bacteria, which suggests that body size may determine the association between organism and environment. We concluded that the pivotal niche process, environmental filtering, weakened with increasing body size, and it should be considered when we evaluate the relative roles of deterministic and stochastic processes in community assemblage.     

长期模拟增雨对荒漠植物形态特征及空间分布格局的影响

研究降雨变化对荒漠优势植物形态特征、空间点格局及空间关联性的影响有助于预测荒漠生态系统对全球气候变化的响应.以乌兰布和沙漠典型荒漠植物唐古特白刺和油蒿为研究对象,进行了连续10年的模拟增雨试验,运用Programita软件,采用Ripley K函数和Monte Carlo随机模拟方法,对长期模拟增雨条件下两种植物形态特征、空间格局及空间关联性进行研究.结果表明: 不同增雨处理下唐古特白刺和油蒿植株的数量、高度、平均冠幅和基径均存在显著差异,增雨处理的唐古特白刺和油蒿植株数量、高度、平均冠幅和基径均显著大于对照,并随着增雨量的增大而增大.当增雨量小于72 mm时,白刺枝条具有明显的聚集分布趋势;当增雨量大于72 mm后,随着增雨量的增大,白刺枝条表现出聚集强度明显降低的趋势.油蒿植株随着增雨量的增加空间分布格局表现为随机分布-聚集分布-随机分布.就空间关联性而言,对照处理下唐古特白刺枝条与油蒿之间表现为负关联,随着增雨量的增加两者呈现无关联或正关联,当增雨量达到144 mm时,空间关联由负关联向正关联转变.未来降雨增加条件下,土壤水分明显改善,两种荒漠植物对水分的竞争减弱,更有利于白刺和油蒿的共存生长.     

植被恢复模式对石漠化生态系统碳储量的影响

为揭示石漠化生态系统碳储量对植被恢复模式的响应,在广西天等县中度石漠化山地,研究了吊丝竹纯林(Dendrocalamus minorD)、任豆纯林(Zenia insignis Z)、任豆、蚬木(Buerretiodendron hsienmu)和顶果木(Acrocarpus fraxinifolius)混交林(mixed plantation M),以及相应同龄封育林(D_(CK)、Z_(CK)、M_(CK))的碳储量。结果表明:人工林碳储量显著高于相应同龄封育林的碳储量,D、Z、M人工林碳储量分别为67.75、66.56、121.20 t/hm~2,而D_(CK)、Z_(CK)、M_(CK)封育林仅为49.75、52.89、60.86 t/hm~2。碳储量在乔木层、地被物层、土壤层分配排序因生态系统类型而异,如M:乔木层土壤层地被物层;D和Z:土壤层乔木层地被物层;D_(CK)、Z_(CK)和M_(CK):土壤层地被物层乔木层。此外,M、D、Z乔木层年平均碳储量差异显著,而封育林尚未形成乔木层,其植被碳储量则随封育时间的增加而提高,即M_(CK)Z_(CK)D_(CK)。可见,在中度石漠化山地,植被恢复模式显著影响生态系统碳储量及其分配。人工造林相对于封山育林更能快速促进植被恢复、形成乔木林,从而提高生态系统碳储量。